Updated 7pm - Added MUT statement
An assistant head who was assaulted at Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary yesterday filed a judicial protest against the Malta Union of Teachers holding it responsible for damage to his reputation.
Charles Polidano, 48, took the matter to court after the MUT ordered members at the Naxxar school to “refrain from communicating with the assistant head on matters related to the investigation of the security guard”.
Mr Polidano said management at school failed to investigate a security guard after he allegedly assaulted him for telling him off for smoking at the school.
Instead, Mr Polidano was interrogated by his superiors and employers of the security guard. The superiors conducting the investigation tried to justify the attitude of the security guard, Mr Polidano said.
Directive ordered educators at the school to refrain from interacting with Mr Polidano
In the judicial protest, Mr Polidano added that he repeatedly reached out to the MUT but that no reply regarding a meeting was forthcoming.
EDITORIAL: Educators deserve respect
The assistant head resigned from MUT and joined the newly-formed Union of Professional Educators a week later. The UPE was set up by three former members of the MUT over disagreements on a new collective agreement for teachers.
In the judicial protest, Mr Polidano said that, a week later, he was informed that a member of the MUT, Stephen Florian, was going round the school taking down names of educators who were allegedly mistreated by Mr Polidano.
The union later issued a directive ordering educators at the Higher Secondary School to refrain from interacting with Mr Polidano, “following repeated reports of harassment received from a number of educators”.
Mr Polidano said he was considering this directive to be “malicious” and intended to attack his reputation.
It was the UPE that brought the incident between Mr Polidano and the security guard to light. The MUT had later condemned the attack on Mr Polidano in a statement.
The Education Ministry said it looked into the case and that action was taken and communicated.
We did not know of judicial protest - MUT
In a reply, the MUT said that it had only learned of the judicial protest from the Times of Malta.
The directive which had irked Mr Polidano, the union said, had been issued to protect union members at the Higher Secondary. Members had complained that Mr Polidano was using his position to pressure them into backing him in his dispute with the security guard, the union said.
"In the past years MUT has been of extensive service to Mr Polidano with the most recent case in December 2017 and which was successfully solved by MUT," the union added.